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Restricted modes: Social media, content classification and LGBTQ sexual citizenship

Version 2 2024-06-06, 12:16
Version 1 2020-06-15, 12:01
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-06, 12:16 authored by C Southerton, D Marshall, P Aggleton, ML Rasmussen, R Cover
In the context of recent controversies surrounding the censorship of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer online content, specifically on YouTube and Tumblr, we interrogate the relationship between normative understandings of sexual citizenship and the content classification regimes. We argue that these content classification systems and the platforms’ responses to public criticism both operate as norm-producing technologies, in which the complexities of sexuality and desire are obscured in order to cultivate notions of a ‘good’ lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer sexual citizen. However, despite normative work of classification seeking to distinguish between sexuality and sex, we argue that the high-profile failures of these classification systems create the conditions for users to draw attention to, rather than firm, these messy boundaries.

History

Journal

New Media and Society

Volume

23

Article number

ARTN 1461444820904362

Pagination

920-938

Location

Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Open access

  • Yes

ISSN

1461-4448

eISSN

1461-7315

Language

English

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Issue

5

Publisher

SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD